Five enthusiastic volunteers arrived from across the country to give a makeover to a little DOC house nestled at Papatōwai in the Catlins.
Continue Reading...Archives For 30/11/1999
A key to the conservation of our nationally endangered little brown moth is determining its host plant and habitat requirements. Brian Patrick is working towards solving the mystery.
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By Emily Funnell, Technical Advisor – Aquatic and Reporting Unit
Earlier this year we carried out a survey in some of the ponds and bog tarns in Southland’s Waituna catchment.
This work was undertaken as part of DOC’s Arawai Kakariki wetland restoration programme in the Awarua-Waituna Wetlands.
Waituna Wetlands
We have always known that giant kōkopu, kōura/freshwater crayfish and other species can be found lurking in in the tarns and ponds, but we have never known how extensive their habitat was.
Freshwater crayfish/kōura
In April we had a peek in a number of ponds all around the catchment, many on public conservation land, but also a few on private land.
Surveying in the Munroe Dam
I would like to be able to say that we found these waterways teeming with fish, but unfortunately only a couple of sites fitted this description.
Giant kōkopu in the Waituna catchment
Giant kōkopu and other freshwater species were largely absent from most of the catchment ponds, except at the Munroe Dam and in the tarns on the southern side of the lagoon. These two sites had more giant kōkopu than we could shake a stick at, and with a good range of sizes.
Giant kōkopu
Unfortunately, the ponds and tarns around Carran Creek, and those to the west of Waituna Creek, were all devoid of freshwater fish. This indicates that we may have been overestimating the use of these habitats by fish—with fewer populations than we thought.
Network of bog tarns at Waituna Lagoon
So, what is the value of this information? We now know where the secure populations of giant kōkopu are in the catchment, so we can carry out more focussed investigations and management.
Cicada at Waituna
The beauty of these sites is that there are few threats to them in their isolated locations. With little habitat change, we anticipate that these populations will be around for a long time.
By Cheryl Pullar, Partnerships Ranger based in Owaka
What do you do when a native bird just won’t learn to help himself? For one yellow-eyed penguin, it was time for the tough love approach.
This year we witnessed a disastrous breeding season for yellow-eyed penguins on the mainland. Every year in November and December, chicks begin to hatch around the wild beaches of the Catlins, Otago Peninsula and North Otago.
Juvenile yellow-eyed penguins are well-known for their wandering ways
There are often a few chicks that are abandoned by their parents or aren’t well fed, and need to be removed from their nests for supplementary feeding. But this year, a late breeding season and lack of fish to eat has meant a large number of chicks have gone hungry, and many have died.
To help protect the population of what is thought to be one of the world’s rarest penguin species, we remove underweight chicks from the nest before fledging and take them to rehabilitation centres like Penguin Place on the Otago Peninsula.
Penguin Place’s Lisa King and DOC’s Andrea Crawford check on chicks at Penguin Place
So earlier in the year, 63 chicks were removed from the Catlins and taken to Penguin Place. This included chick J19013 (a lively young male, according to his measurements), who was taken on 10 February from Penguin Bay, weighing only 3.8 kg.
Mad dash to the sea
Taking off into the sea at Jack’s Bay in the Catlins
J19013 was first released from Penguin Place on 20 March at a fine 5.2 kg, but returned to the release location in early April, again underweight. So he was taken back to rehab, fattened up, and released again 14 April. However, the same thing happened again; he returned to the release site a few days later underweight, and was fattened in rehab again. All in all J19013 was released six times!
Splashing into the surf
Chick J19013
After talking with J19013’s caretakers, we decided to take a ‘tough-love’ approach—by bringing this bird back to the Catlins, a 1.5 hour journey by road, for a hard release at Jacks Bay, close to where he hatched. The area was monitored over several days to ensure that this charismatic young bird took to the sea.
J19013 took off like a rocket when we let him out of the cage, and disappeared quickly into the surf. Now he’s either got a heck of a long swim back to Penguin Place, or he will have to learn how to catch his own dinner.
This week’s photo shows Waituna Lagoon—the location of a recent community open day marking the first year of DOC’s partnership with Fonterra.
The natural habitat at Awarua-Waituna, including the 1350 hectare Waituna Lagoon, is one of five key areas that DOC and Fonterra are working together to improve over the next ten years.
The open day was a chance for the local community to see the work being undertaken at Waituna by Fonterra and DOC, in conjunction with Ngai Tahu, the Southland District Council and Environment Southland.
“In the first year our focus has been on monitoring and science. We’ve got to get this right to ensure the whole project sets off in the right direction and can make a real difference,” said Fonterra Living Water Project Manager, Nicola Toki.
